The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

Greste fate hangs on DFAT document

A federal government document could be Peter Greste's golden ticket to ending his Egyptian re-trial and being acquitted of the terror charges that have haunted him since 2013.

But he's not holding his breath.

As the re-trial for Mr Greste - in absentia - and fellow journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, reaches its closing stages, a document that his lawyer will present to an Egyptian court on Thursday could end his involvement.

Mr Greste along with his Al Jazeera colleagues, was arrested in December 2013 and charged with supporting the black-listed Muslim Brotherhood group linked to ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The trio, who were also accused of spreading false information, were initially convicted of terrorism-related charges in a trial widely derided as political by rights groups.

He spent 400 days in jail before being unconditionally deported on the order of current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in February.

Mr Greste says the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade document shows there's no evidence he's broken any Australian laws, laying the ground for all legal proceedings to be concluded.